I love TED. I watch TED programs all the time because in 15-20 minutes they summarize important information that you cannot get anywhere else! This TED is like that.
This is the most important TED you may ever watch in your life. Ignore the beginning and the title since while those are funny and nice, the important part of the message actually comes later! I am wondering how the beginning half of the video connects to the second half–I know there is some resemblance in importance and some connection but the important stuff is in the second half.
The important part is about the numbers used to calculate the percentage of how medicines may help or hurt people for whom they are prescribed! The numbers are so amazing that the process will stop you in your track for any medicine you are taking! Of course no doctor will ever tell you these numbers and the statistical test results of adverse reactions that are included with the medicine do not actually portray the real information you need to know.
Since there is a transcript of the TED video is also available, I am grabbing some of the key points for you in case you do not have the 15-20 minutes to watch this awesome video. Also I find that numbers like this look way better in writing than listened to because they have the chance to dig deeper in your brain.
There is a number called NNT.
What is NNT?
NNT is the number of people needed to be treated (by the medicine or surgery or any procedure) in order to claim one person getting any benefit from the treatment and reach the desired “cure” is achieved.
By all of our selfish thinking, this number should be one. Your doctor would not prescribe anything to you that he/she did not think would help you or would s/he? To your doctor’s excuse s/he may not actually be aware of what NNT is although it was taught in med school at some point! But this is just as easily forgotten as the metabolic consequences of many medicines or even the metabolic pathways and interactions thereby of the many medicines they prescribe.
NNT
From the transcribed document at the bottom of this video:
GlaxoSmithKline estimates that 90 percent of the drugs work in only 30 to 50 percent of the people. So the number needed to treat for the most widely prescribed statin [cholesterol reduction medicine], what do you suppose it is? How many people have to take it before one person is helped? 300. This is according to research by research practitioners Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband, independently confirmed by Bloomberg.com. I ran through the numbers myself. 300 people have to take the drug for a year before one heart attack, stroke or other adverse event is prevented.
“Well, OK, one in 300 chance of lowering my cholesterol. Why not, doc? Give me the prescription anyway.” But you should ask at this point for another statistic, and that is, “Tell me about the side effects.” Right? So for this particular drug, the side effects occur in five percent of the patients. And they include terrible things — debilitating muscle and joint pain, gastrointestinal distress —but now you’re thinking, “Five percent, not very likely it’s going to happen to me, I’ll still take the drug.”But wait a minute... 300 people take the drug, right? One person’s helped, five percent of those 300 have side effects, that’s 15 people. You’re 15 times more likely to be harmed by the drug than you are to be helped by the drug.
…Medical ethics requires it, it’s part of the principle of informed consent. You have the right to have access to this kind of information to begin the conversation about whether you want to take the risks or not.
…For the most widely performed surgery on men over the age of 50, removal of the prostate for cancer, the number needed to treat is 49. That’s right, 49 surgeries are done for every one person who’s helped. And the side effects in that case occur in 50 percent of the patients.They include impotence, erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, rectal tearing, fecal incontinence. (emphasis added)
Thus your chances of recovery from prostate surgery is very slim plus you are 24.5 times more like to have horrible side effects than not.
Looking at it from this perspective, I would demand to see every single medicine’s NNT from my doctor from now on if I were you! I most certainly will. I do not consider myself to be a guinea pig and wish not to be part of any experiment without my expressly asked for and written consent!
Your comments are welcome as always!
Angela
Founder of Stanton Migraine Protocol® and Author of Fighting the Migraine Epidemic and many other books sold worldwide.
Clueless Doctors & Scientists 
Do you follow International Health News? He often digs into NNT and absolute vs. relative risk.
http://www.yourhealthbase.com/newsletter.htm
Peter at Hyperlipid is one of my favorites, frequently detailing the overall crappiness of nutritional studies. While it’s often fairly technical, it’s not hard to glide by the complicated parts.
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com
It never hurts to improve one’s critical thinking skills.
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Thanks Colleen. I was not aware of these two sites. I will look them up and see what’s there! ❤
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Shees.. starting new thread here Roald because the other one is becoming thin as a pencil! Oh I will try that one day! 😀 Thank you! I may need some info from you to put you in as a recommender. I don’t remember what I needed. I think your email and phone… I will check it out and send you a note. I know I could muse the audience real well and can put a personal twist in (they seem to like that) since I am a migraineur. I could do real well if they let me. ❤
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Just to make sure you receive this.
You wish to do a TED talk? Try https://speaker-nominations.ted.com/ I mean, for starters 🙂
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What’s your take on naturopathic medicine?
Btw, here’s a site you could be interested in to publish your stuff.
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Naturopaths are great! One of them, Dr. Gonzalez, was using my protocol for his cancer patients and I talked to him on the phone a few days before he “died” sort of like for no reason together with 12 others within 2 months period in the summer… they are great but they all mysteriously get shot by accident.. rumors are abound of who is responsible. Luckily I am not an MD so cannot be considered as one though my work on migraines will pretty much put a HUGE dent into the 13 Billion dollar-a-year profits… tough.. 😉
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Thanks, this also is so helpful in my making some important medical decisions right now. I hate to say this to a doctor but I am very disillusioned with the medical profession. It leaves me and others in such a difficult position.
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Indeed Louise. We can face our doctors and tell them what we know. Some hate us and they must go and dig dirt elsewhere. Some are open enough to listen (even if just in pretense) and some actually enjoy the help they get. I had a doctor gave me a hug when I took one of the documents in for her and used a highlighter to call her attention to the important stuff. It just makes it easier for those who wish to help! Those are the keepers! 🙂
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I may have told you I paid $4,500 to go to an fancy, for the rich (not me) clinic and I am very concerned that I am not getting the help I need. Its not that my doctor isn’t a nice person but last visit she was so worried about me she started to cry. Well, I am glad she cares but that doesn’t help me much. Thanks for you help
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wow, a healthcare provider caring so much? But what exactly is wrong? Feel free to email me at angela@migraine-book.com for privacy!
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I follow TED since it saw the light of day. It’s great indeed. Alas, as it often happens to other great stuff, the concept began to deteriorate when TEDx popped up 😦
I sent the video to my doctor 😉
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Oh boy.. lol… your doctor will not like you much! 😉 What’s wrong with TEDx? I saw many good things. I think the difference is that they are local chapters… isn’t that the case?
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It’s all your fault, milady. You made me telling him about salt and sugar, and cholesterol, and migraine, and bacon, and BP, and diabetes, and meat, and bread, and jelly beans. 😀 😛
Like you said, there are good things there too, but I also saw, although TEDx must follow certain TED guidelines, a lot of local crap using the TED logo. Well…..um…..maybe I’m kind of a quality freak. I just can’t stand mediocre content, as it makes me fall asleep, bores me to the core, and in my view is mostly cloned and/or repetitive. In the end it will only tarnish TED’s reputation.
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You are probably right albeit I wish I could present my stuff on a TED or TEDx. The broader the serious audience the better. But you are probably right!
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You wish to do a TED talk? Try https://speaker-nominations.ted.com/ I mean, for starters 🙂
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I would love to. But I need to be nominated… Will you nominate me? I cannot nominate myself! 😦
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I would, but you don’t need me, because, contrary to what you believe, you CAN nominate yourself. Check “I am nominating myself”, right under Part 2 on the form I sent to you.
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I tried that. It did not work. They asked for references.. duh… the names I could give had no benefit from supporting me–quite the contrary. So nominating myself does not work.
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So when it comes right down to it, those cheered TED-people also belong to the herds of mainstream society? 😦
From what I saw of your curriculum vitae it should be crystal clear to them that you are capable of giving an outstanding TED-talk.
So, fill it the damned form, send it to me, and I will nominate you. I don’t think they will have the guts to deny Sir Nobody, living and (sometimes) creating havoc on One Happy Island, the pleasure of seeing the Migraine-Specialist climbing the stairs to the TED-stage and informing the clueless audience down below about her protocol and more. And if not, we could always give them a headache or two. 😀
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